My mom’s worried voice and face instantly remind me of the car accident that Emmett and I got into last year. I may never know what the Elites expected him to do to me that day. Whatever it was wasn’t good, and in my desperate attempts to get away from him, he slammed the car into a streetlight. And somehow that’s what led to our first kiss, right here in this hospital.
My mom rushes over and showers me in kisses and hugs, each one causing me to wince in pain.
“Mom! Stop!” I rasp as I cringe.
“Sorry, I was just so worried when I g
ot the call about your accident!” She cups my face in her hands, looking down at me with a relieved expression. “Coach Granger, thank you so much for everything.”
I listen to her tone and realize whoever called her must not have told her the whole story. She is obviously thanking him for picking me up and driving me to the hospital but has no idea he saved my life. And maybe that’s for the best. I’m learning to accept that my mom may never know the full story of anything in Jameson.
“I’m ready to go home,” I moan as I brace my stuff body against the back of the bed, eagerly pushing myself to my feet.
She wraps her arms around me and guides me out of the room. Coach Granger says goodbye at the front doors of the hospital. I almost want to run after him. The corruption of this town has a special way of making you feel alone, making you want to flock to the arms of anyone who fully understands it. That’s part of what brought Emmett and me together after all.
The Elites have threatened to kill me plenty of times. Thomas Jameson and the Hendersons have all put guns to my head. The ways I’ve been injured and humiliated have almost been as bad as the death threats. But they’ve never come this close to actually killing me before. If Coach Granger hadn’t shown up on the side of the road like that, I would be dead right now.
The harsh reality of it makes me feel sick as I press my aching forehead to the window of my mom’s car, relishing in the coolness of it against my skin. All I want is to graduate and get the hell out of Jameson, away from the Elites and WJ Prep. But I’m starting to wonder if they’ll ever let that happen.
My father and I are the ultimate insult to them, after all. Between his past transgressions against them and the murder of Thomas Jameson. That only left Emmett standing in their way of ultimate power, and he’s hand in hand with me. Plus, I’ve never been good at bowing down to any of them the way everyone else does. I swallow down a hard lump in my throat as I begin to wonder…if maybe I will have to start treating them the way everyone else does just to survive. Like unquestionable gods.
7
Chapter Seven
Between the muscle relaxers and the exhaustion from my adrenaline crash, I sleep like a rock. When I wake up the next morning, I somehow briefly forget about the whole thing. Enough that I spend a minute or two wondering where my purse is before I remember that it’s down at the bottom of a cliff.
As it hits me, there’s a knock at my bedroom door. “Ophelia?” my mom calls out, just as she barges in. “Are you ready?”
“No, I just got up,” I reply, rubbing my face in confusion. “Ready for what?”
“I’ll have to drop you off at the DMV so you can get a new license,” she says. “But we have to hurry. I can’t be too much later for work than I already will be.”
“But…school,” I murmur through my grogginess.
“You’ll have to miss part of the day,” she insists. “You can catch a bus to WJ Prep when you’re done. They’re only open weekdays and you’ll need your ID.”
“For what?” I sneer. “It’s not like I have a car to drive.”
She ignores my pity party and disappears down the hall, but I know it’s her way of rushing me. If I want to sulk, I’ll have to do it in the car. We have to go. I throw on some clothes and follow along. As she drives me to the DMV, I reach for my cell phone five or six times, thinking I need to message Emmett, only to remember it’s in my mangled car right along with my driver’s license.
“Did anyone tell Emmett what happened?” I ask her, amazed that I was too tired to think about it the night before.
“Yes, I talked to him last night,” she assures me. “He was worried sick, like the rest of us. But I told him you were okay and that you’d be at school later in the day. He wanted to come over, but I told him you were asleep and needed your rest.”
I’m suddenly overwhelmed with the need to be in his arms, and I’m almost angry that she didn’t let him burst in on my sleep in the middle of the night. Aside from Coach Granger, he’s the only other person I really feel safe with right now.
She drops me off at the DMV, feeling completely naked without my phone or anything else. I can only hope that I don’t have any problems and that I catch the bus afterward because otherwise I’m screwed. It’s at least a three-mile walk to any place where I could reach someone to come pick me up, and everyone will be at work or school.
Those Elites really do know how to fuck a person over. I’m sure they’d be happier if I died, but survival means I’m stuck facing down all of these inconveniences. I guess I should be grateful for. But it’s all overshadowed by the fact that if Malcolm and the others tried to kill me once, who’s to say they won’t try again?
Thankfully, I get my new license with no problems. I catch the bus to school in time to make the last couple of class periods. I manage to meet with teachers for the classes I missed that morning, pass a test I should have studied for last night, and survive the school day without any more brushes with death.
I barely have time to see its Emmett as I meet up with him at the end of the day. The moment he sees me, he rushes up to me and pulls me in close, squeezing so tight I can barely breathe. The moment he lets go he crashes his lips into mine, reminding me how badly we need to sneak away together as soon as possible.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he says passionately, pressing his forehead to mine. “Your mom wouldn’t let me come over last night. I almost drove over anyway and snuck in through the window.”
“You should have,” I smile. But really, I wonder if I would have slept right through it.